Զրոյց՝ Առաջին Միջազգային Հայկական Համագումարի Կազմակերպիչներէն Մկրտիչ Պուլտուքեանի Հետ

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1. Thank you, Mr. Bouldoukian

   Dear Mr. Bouldoukian,

   Following the reading of your interview in Keghart.com of Nov. 27, 2009 (!), I would like to grab this opportunity, to thank you for your noble action on behalf of my brother in Bourj-Hammoud, Lebanon more than 30 years ago. I want to mention the episode since, in your intervirew, you modestly left it out from the list of your accomplishments or important events in your life.

   Please accept this "Thank You" on behalf of my deceased parents and my extended family. 

   Allow me to describe the event and related circumstances from memory, since I was not in Lebanon at the time, but am very familiar with the details.

   In 1973, the fascist Maronite Phalange party of Lebanon and its derivatives started executing the Zionist plan for a civil war in Lebanon by attacking a bus full of Palestinians in Ain-El-Remanneh. This was the start of civil war between the fascist Maronites and the Palestinian, Muslim and Druze communities. The Armenian community stayed neutral because of their loyalty to the unity of Lebanon.

   When Maronites saw that they were losing their war, they intensified their hatred, and their daily murder and mayhem to draw the Armenians from their neutrality into the conflict. To accomplish this, the Maronites attacked the Palestinians in the Nab’a neighborhood, adjacent to Bourj-Hammoud, an enclave populated mainly by Armenians–the survivors of the Turkish Genocides of Armenians and their descendents. The Armenian Tashnag Party, in control of these Armenian communities, was thus "obliged" to engage in the battle to defend the Armenian neighborhoods and to protect the Armenian population.

   My brother was not a member of any political party or military group. He participated in that battle as a young Armenian, like many other young Armenians from the neighborhood–to defend the Armenian quorters near Sourp Asdvadzadzin church and the "Trad-Dzeranots" community from the Phalange party’s armed thugs and its derivatives plus the Palestinian armed elements.

   In the battle of Nab’a (1976 or 1977), my 20-year-old brother received a Kalashnikov bullet in his right shoulder, shattering the nerves of his arm. He lost a lot of blood as he was taken to hospital but miraculously survived.

   Many other Armenians died or were severly wounded (became handicapped or paralyzed because they did not receive adequate medical treatment) during the Nab’a battle which lasted for about a week.

   The Tashnag Party started an aggressive drive to collect cash donations from Armenians around the world, under the pretext of helping wounded Armenians get medical treatment. To collect money, they used coercion, intimidation and threats on the impoverished Armenians of Bourdj-Hammoud and the surrounding regions.

   One day a group of young men knocked on my parents’ door, where my brother also lived, and demanded a cash donation. They were my brother’s so-called friends from the neighborhood Tashnag "agoump" (party center). My mother told them that they should be ashamed for demanding money which was needed to treat a wounded member of our household, where their ‘zenki enger" friend, whom they knew lived, resided and didn’t get medical or financial help.

   Without shame or remorse, they aggressively stated that they were following orders from "agoump." They left that day, but a few weeks later, the Tashnag thieves sent a different group of bullies to demand money. They came many more times. By the way, I am apolitical and have many friends from all political parties. (Hnchag and Ramgavar leaders, don’t rejoice: your record isn’t any better.)

   Over several years, the Tashnag Party used this opportunity to milk the Armenian communities around the world, collecting cash "to support the medical treatment and rehabilitation of Armenian victims of the battle of Nab’a."

   To the best of my recollection, the Tashnag assisted very few of those who were wounded in the battle of Nab’a–for publicity, and only those who were members of Tashnag Party or had strong connections. Since my father had belonged to the Hnchag Party in his youth, that provided a good reason for the Tashnags to deny my brother any assistance. The rest of the money was pocketed by the party leaders and thieves.

   Needless to say, my brother did not receive a single penny, medical treatment or even medication from the Tashnags.. Several times my needy and desperate parents went to "agoump," begging for medical assistance, but they were sarcastically told: "Where did your son think he was going, to a party? He took the risk and he got what he got." 

   As the months passed by, my brother’s arm got worse, to the point that the only solution was amputation. Then a good friend of my brother’s and a relative of Mr. Bouldoukian, heard Mr. Bouldoukian say that anybody who knew anyone in need of medical assistance to let Mr.Bouldoukian know. My brother’s friend brought my brother’s condition to the attention of Mr. Bouldoukian. Mr. Bouldoukian recognized the merit and seriousness of the case and contacted one of his business acquaintances, a Sheikh from a Persian Gulf country and secured his promise to pay all of my brother’s medical expenses.

   My brother flew to Europe and underwent several surgeries and months of therapy, paid by the Sheikh all because of Mr. Bouldoukian’s good reputation. The doctors later told my brother that had the surgeries been delayed even by a month, amputation would have been the only solution. My brother recovered his arm, though with lesser mobility and diminished strength, but at least the arm remained functional.

   Mr. Bouldoukian, through your noble intervention, you saved my brother’s arm. Had he received immediate and correct medical treatment his arm would have recovered 100% functionality, but the Tashnag thugs filled their pockets and bought diamonds for their mistresses with the money they had collected by force.

   Mr. Bouldoukian, I and all my extended family always wanted to thank you and the Sheikh, but the circumstances did not permit us to meet you. I wish you the best of health, joy, success and a long life. I consider your assistance one of your greatest accomplishments, worthy to be added to your interview. My mother would have said: "Hogh perness, vosgi tarnah."

   Sincerely,

   W.B.

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